An article in today’s Daily Mail bemoans how today’s children have lost the ‘right to roam’ in four generations, due to a combination of automobiles, overprotective parents, and an over exaggerated news media.

It profiles a family in Britain whose ‘roaming radius’ from their homes went from six miles in 1919 to one mile in 1950, down to just 300 yards today. And unsurprisingly, this has adverse affects on peoples’ mental states.

According to representatives from Natural England, people are “healthier and better adjusted if they get out into the countryside,” and that “people deprived of contact with nature are at greater risk of depression and anxiety.”

Nothing we didn’t know already, right?

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by Casey Schreiner

Founder and Editor of Modern Hiker, Author of "Day Hiking Los Angeles." "Discovering Griffith Park," and "Cloud Spotting." Walking Meditator, Native Plant Enthusiast.